A Philadelphia jury concluded that a rear underride guard on a Strick Corp. trailer was not defective and denied the plaintiff’s request for $8 million in a product liability lawsuit filed against the trailer maker.
An early morning crash on Sept. 23, 1996, happened when a car driven by the plaintiff, Tameka Caleb, struck the rear of the parked trailer. The impact sheared off the top of the car Caleb was driving and trapped her inside her vehicle for about an hour. She suffered permanent brain damage.
The jury found the federally mandated underride guard was not defective and reached a verdict within an hour after the Nov. 20 trial ended, Tom Kuzmick, Strick’s outside counsel, said.
The Philadelphia court restricted one of Caleb’s witnesses, automobile safety consultant Byron Bloch, from testifying about the speed of Caleb’s vehicle or the accident reconstruction. Kuzmick questioned Bloch’s expert status, saying the consultant had no “engineering, welding, or metallurgical background.”
For the full story, see the Dec. 11 print edition of Transport Topics. .
